A Day (Un)Like Any Other

Abstract

I was up late watching the IPL match between Gujarat Titans and Chennai Super Kings on 23^rd night and admiring the unruffled way in which Dhoni made those critical fielding and bowling changes. I did not miss his post-match chat with Harsha Bhogle either. So, on 24th morning I woke up only by 6:45, a little later than usual. With the second mug of my morning tea, I switched to Purani Filmon Ka Sangeet on Radio Ceylon (RC) in my iPhone. I learnt that the day marked the 23^rd death anniversary of the great lyricist Majrooh Sultanpuri. The lovely collection of songs I heard over the next half-an-hour made me decide to do a quick blog on RC, All India Radio (AIR) and the Majrooh songs aired that morning.

Radio Ceylon

In 1925, RC was the first radio station to be set up in Asia, and the second in the world after BBC which had come up in 1922. AIR was established in 1936. Radio Ceylon and the Tamil station Ilangai Vanoli Nilayam were the music channels I listened to during my boyhood. The Indian response by way of Vividh Bharati came only in 1957 and took time to catch up in popularity with its rival across the Gulf of Mannar. By that time, many thousands of listeners across the length and breadth of India were hooked to Amin Sayani (of Binaca Geet Mala fame) and S P Mylvaganam, his equally popular Tamil counterpart.

It is remarkable how well RC has adapted itself to the modern age of hand -held smart devices. As I had posted in an earlier blog, RC gives us YouTube capsules of its morning programs within 45 minutes after they are aired which we can listen to conveniently on our phones without having to turn radio knobs, switch frequencies, etc. Their anchors led by Jyoti Parmar do a very professional job of playing the music without too much of ‘bak bak’ which can interfere with our enjoyment of the songs. Jyoti Parmar’s father Digvijay Parmar was an announcer for Radio Ceylon for about 30 years from 1967. Jyothi’s impeccable voice and diction make listening to her programs that much more enjoyable. It is admirable that a few Sri Lankan nationals are making the effort to learn Hindi and share the program responsibilities with Jyoti Parmar.    

All India Radio (AIR)

I am happy that AIR too is rebranding itself by leveraging its rich archives using technology. I do listen to Vividh Bharathi Service (VBS) programs on YouTube through my iPhone. My problem is that VBS programs tend to be more thematic giving the anchors freedom to express themselves at the risk of hindering the listeners’ enjoyment of the music. Many of them do so pretty eloquently and the rich language they use often goes over my head. Often, they omit to mention the singers, lyricists, music directors and the film, which I find quite irritating. These may be the personal complaints of a listener who learnt Hindi through film songs rather than the other way round. But VBS is certainly entertaining music lovers all over the world. VBS has also caught up with social media and is available now via apps, Facebook, etc.

Radio Ceylon’s Tribute to Majrooh Sultanpuri

I will start by providing the link to the program that was aired on Radio Ceylon yesterday morning:

I now move on to the individual songs that made up the tribute to Majrooh Sultanpuri.

Karke Badnam Meri Neende Haraam – Lata – Madan Mohan – Baaghi (1953)

This lovely solo is from a less-known film Baaghi. Madan Mohan’s music reminds you of that of Shankar-Jaikishan both in the use of Bulbul Tarang and the melody and beat of their Kahey Ko Der Lagai Re, Aaye Na Ab Tak Balma from Daag (1953).

Mujhe Dekho Hasrat Ki Tasveer Hoon Mein – Talat – O P Nayyar – Baaz (1953)

The instrumental intro and finale to this rare Talat ghazal brings to mind his solo Mein Pagal Mera Manwa Pagal from Aashiana (1952) composed by Madan Mohan.

Babuji Dheere Chalna – Geeta Dutt – O P Nayyar – Aar Paar (1954)

This is an all-time great hit of Geeta Dutt and O P Nayyar.

Bekaraar Hai Koi – Suraiya-Rafi – Husnlal-Bhagatram – Shama Parwana (1954)

This is a melodious duet composed by Husnlal-Bhagatram, the first music director duo of Hindi films whose songs were popular in the 1940s and early 1950s.

Bol Pardesiya Ye Tune Kya Kiya – Asha – O P Nayyar – Mangu (1954)

This haunting solo isone of the best of Asha with O P Nayyar.

Toote Na Dil Toote Na – Mukesh – Naushad – Andaz (1949)

This is the best of the four solos of Mukesh in Andaz, though one or two of the others may have become more popular.   

Aa Mohabat Ki Basti Basayenge Hum – Kishore-Lata – Anil Biswas – Fareb (1953)

Anil Biswas was the pioneer of orchestration in Hindi film music. His skills in that direction are very much in evidence in this duet.

 Jab Dil Hi Toot Gaya – K L Saigal – Naushad – Shahjahan (1946)

The right song to end the tribute to Majrooh Sultanpuri as Shahjahan was his debut film.

Summing Up

Majrooh was a giant among lyricists with a large body of work. The RC tribute managed give a glimpse of the range of his work. Though all the songs are from the early part of his career, they covered a good range of singers and compositions. Mukesh’s voice is still under the influence of Saigal and Kishore is yet to get out of the mould of his Jagmag Jagmag Karta Nikhla Chand from Rimjhim (1949). The Talat solo from Baaz was an ansune song for me, while many numbers were kamsune. Overall, this lovely bouquet of music changed a day like any other into a day unlike many others for me. That is why I am sharing it with you.

S. Krishna Kumar

26^th May 2023

Bengaluru

Blog # 67

Moviegoing.…… Gone?

Abstract

My collegemate Giridhar had commented that of all the movies listed in my blog on music director N Datta (https://kaykay46.wordpress.com/ 2023/ 04/26/n-dattas-artistic-altruism/), Dhool Ka Phool was the only one he had seen in a theatre. That set me thinking about movies I had watched in cinema halls in Bangalore, a few of which have survived but many have been demolished and rebuilt as shopping malls, commercial complexes, metro stations, etc. The growth of multiplexes in the last two decades has forced the closure of many single-screen theatres. The increasing number of OTT platforms and competition among them is further accelerating this trend. Speaking for myself, I am not an ‘active’ consumer of current online movie content but more a ‘passive’ viewer of past movies and serials on TV in the comfort of my home. However, this blog is not an analysis of the above changes or my personal preferences but a nostalgic trip down memory lane about movie theatres of Bangalore where I along with family or friends enjoyed great movies in the past.

Family First

My parents moved to Bangalore in 1954 and we lived in Malleswaram till 1977. They were fond of movies, my mother more so than my father. Soon, she had her own movie group drawn from among the neighbours. On weekdays, they would watch matinee shows of Tamil and other movies in nearby cinema halls like Swastik and Central. They may have seen all the great emotional dramas of Sivaji Ganesan and Padmini/Savitri of that era and wept copious tears. They also liked the romantic movies of Gemini Ganesan. In fact, the daughter of an immediate neighbour had a crush on him. On weekends, my father would take the family to watch movies, including Hindi ones, in theatres nearby. The earliest memory I have is that of all of us seeing Insaniyat (1955) at States theatre. That movie is stuck in my mind because it featured a chimpanzee named Zippy. The second movie I recall from those days is Hum Panchhi Ek Dal Ke (1957) which the family watched at Alankar, then a swanky new theatre. We watched other movies too, with Veerapandia Kattabomman (1959) at Geetha and Padikkadha Medhai (1960) at Swastik standing out.

Friends Next – City First

The first Hindi film I watched with my friend Mali is Tumsa Nahin Dekha (1957) at Kempegowda theatre. Mali lived in Malleswaram close by and was a year senior to me at St. Joseph’s Indian High School. We were very fond of cricket and Hindi film music in general and of O P Nayyar in particular. I recall enjoying the film and its music as much as the new-found freedom of going to a movie with my friend(s).

Mali was a serious movie buff of the first-day-first-show type who did not mind watching a good movie again with me. We must have seen dozens of movies in those days at theatres like Movieland, Geetha, Majestic, Sagar, Prabhat, etc. Soon new ones like Kalpana, Santosh and others sprung up in that area. The number of movies we watched is so many that I do not recall all of them. But the one memorable movie Mali and I watched was Kalyana Parisu (1959) at Shivaji on J C Road. It was the debut film of director Sridhar and was remade in many languages. Other than this, I watched numerous other movies in those years with family and friends, mostly at Swastik, Central or in the Gandhinagar area.

From that period, the first Hindi movie I recall having watched by myself is Jis Desh Mein Ganga Behti Hai (1960) at Alankar. I had just finished my SSLC exams in March 1961 and wanted to celebrate my sense of relief by going to a movie alone. I did that the next year too after my PUC exams by seeing Junglee (1961) at Sagar. It was an odd feeling, with the persons to my left and right being both strangers. My father did not think much of my idea. I heard him ask my mother why I did not take it easy at home on the last day of the exams and watch a movie the next day!

New Friends, More Movies – The Cantonment Discovered

Mali who was a year senior to me joined Visvesvaraya Engineering College after PUC. I chose to do my B Sc and stayed on at St. Joseph’s. This brought together new friendships and new movies to see. I am happy that this core group of friends – Kumar, Vasu, Bhupat, Prasanna, Shekar, Kesari and myself – has stuck together for over six decades and goes by the name of Gaampara Gumpu these days.  

Given that St. Joseph’s was close to many theatres, our first attraction was English movies. Our group must have seen most of the worthwhile films across all genres in the three years 1962-65. Imperial was closest to the college. I remember seeing Ben Hur (1959) there. It was a narrow theatre and I ended up with tickets in one of the very front rows. Watching the chariot race from close to the big screen and the sound system gave me a crick in the neck and a bad headache. Come September (1961) was a big it with all of us. Bhupat recalls that we cut the last two periods – Physics and Maths – to watch it only to find our Physics lecturer Gopalan enjoying the movie a few seats away from us! Wait Until Dark and Bonnie and Clyde (both 1967) are two other movies I associate with Imperial.

Rex was the next closest. From Disney classics like Jungle Cat (1959) and Absent-Minded Professor (1961) to rom-coms like Breakfast at Tiffanys (1961) Divorce/Marriage Italian Style (1961/64), we took it all in. Our group had figured out that we could watch the matinee show at Rex without cutting the last class at the college. The main film would start at 4 PM after the advertisements, Indian News Reel, trailers of new films and a five-minute interval from 3:55 to 4. Our last period would end at 3:55 also and five minutes were enough for us to regroup at the theatre. Later movies we watched there include How to Steal a Million (1967) and Cactus Flower (1969).

Plaza, Liberty and Empire were a little farther away on M G Road. I associate Plaza with the Hitchcock films (re-runs too) we watched there. They included all the Cary Grant and James Stewart classics as well as later ones like Psycho (1960) and The Birds (1963). There were also one-off hits like Hatari (1962), Lawrence of Arabia (1963) and Beckett (1964), thrillers like The Guns of Navarone (1961) and Where Eagles Dare (1968) and many more. I also recall watching Satyajit Ray’s Pratidwandi (1970) at Plaza and falling in love with the deep voice of Dhritiman Chatterjee. I also saw a few Jerry Lewis films, including Boeing Boeing (1965) with Tony Curtis. At Plaza, we also watched Sergio Leone’s spaghetti western trilogy – A Fistfull of Dollars (1964), For a Few Dollars More (1965) and The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966).

I recall watching Charade (1963) and Gambit (1966) at Liberty.  I am not sure if I saw I’d Rather Be Rich (1964) at Liberty or Rex. – A Hindi re-runs used to be screened at Empire. I do not recall having seeing a single movie there. Once when I was returning home late from college, I heard the Hemant-Lata duet Saanware Salone Aaye Din Bahar Ke waft through the windows of Empire. I stopped, moved the curtain aside and watched bits of the song filmed on Meena Kumari, Sunil Dutt and Daisy Irani. It was a rerun of the film Ek Hi Raasta (1956).

BRV was an iconic theatre in those days. It all started with the screening of the first James Bond movie, Dr. No (1962). From then on, BRV would get the rights to screen James Bond movies from the same day they were released in Bombay and Delhi. I also remember watching Zorba the Greek (1964), If It’s Tuesday This Must Be Belgium (1969) and Tora! Tora!Tora! (1970) there. Other films I associate with BRV are The Great Escape (1963) and In the Heat of the Night (1967).

Theatres like Lido, Bluemoon/Diamond, Symphony and Galaxy came up after our group passed out of St. Joseph’s in 1965. I saw Far from the Madding Crowd (1967) and Mackenna’s Gold (1969) at Lido. I am not sure where I watched It’s a Mad Mad Mad Mad World (1963) and Those Magnificent Men and Their Flying Machines (1965).     

Morning Shows – The City Rediscovered

At college, we learnt that theatres in the Gandhinagar area screened old Hindi classics as morning shows at 10:30 AM for a very concessional rate. On Saturdays, we would finish our Chemistry practicals by 10 and cycle down to Prabhat or Jaihind where we watched most morning shows. Movies we enjoyed included many old hits of Raj Kapoor and Dev Anand. We also watched re-runs of the 3-D classic House of Wax (1953), a few Danny Kaye and Norman Wisdom comedies and Roman Holiday (1953) at Vijayalakshmi in Chickpet.

The mid-sixties had its share of hit films in Hindi and they were screened mostly in theatres in Gandhinagar. From our group, Bhupat managed to get the tickets somehow and watched Sangam (1964), with two intervals, on the very first day. I recall him being excitedly asked at college next day “Kaise Tha Ba?”. The Hindi movies of that period that I watched are a blur in my mind. But I do recall watching black and white gems like Kala Bazar (1960) and Bandini (1963) at Alankar, Bees Saal Baad (1962) and Kohraa (1964) at Prabhat and Woh Kaun Thi (1964) at Kalpana. I also associate Alankar with great Kannada hits like Sandhya Raga (1966) and national award winners like Chemmeen (1965) and Bhuvan Shome (1969). Movies of Shammi Kapoor, Joy Mukherjee and Biswajeet used to be on at Sagar. Alankar was not only the most spacious and well-maintained theatre but also screened the hits Bimal Roy, Hrishikesh Mukherjee, Raj Kapoor, Dev Anand and many others. Given the pressure of college work, I must have missed many of them but made up by watching them as re-runs later.  

I do not recall having watched any movie at Himalaya which specialised in the stunt movies of Dara Singh. Later, good ones like Ek Phool Char Kaante (1960), Hariyali Aur Rasta (1962) and Mr. X in Bombay were shown there. Other theatres in the area included Abhinay and Sangam.  I recall having seen Naya Zamana (1971) and Jugnu (1973) at Sangam and Tum Haseen Main Jawaan (1970) at Abhinay. Another movie that has stayed in my mind is Achanak (1973) that I had watched at Sapna. We also started patronising theatres in other residential areas like Navrang in Rajajinagar. Apart from many Raj Kumar hits, I feel that I watched MGR’s Adimai Penn (1969) there and recall SPB’s debut song – Aayiram Nilave Vaa – from that film. There was the clutch of three in Ulsoor – Ajantha, Lakshmi and Sree, if I remember the names right. Lavanya and Naga came later.

During this time, my friend Krishna and I also watched reruns of many English films at Manoranjan at the Airforce Training Command in Hebbal. I recall Frank Sinatra-Dean Martin starrers like Sergeants 3 (1962) and 4 for Texas (1963) among them.        

Moviegoing during the Working Years

In my service of thirty-seven years, I spent only twelve years in Bangalore during 1973-77, 1988-90 and 1998-2004. In the first period, Vilasini and I, with our first-born Arun sleeping peacefully in a bassinet, watched the 9:30 PM shows mostly. We explored theatres like Geethanjali, Nataraj, Kino and Gopal during this time. Movies I recall from that period include Bhootayyana Maga Ayyu (1974) and Pratigya (1975) at Geethanjali and Naan Avanillai (1974) and many Tamil comedies at Nataraj. I do not recall any movie I watched at Kino but remember that Inteqam (1969) and Django (1966) were screened there. In 1988-90, we lived in our house in Indiranagar. The M G Road theatres were then more easily accessible.

As we started living in RMV Extension since 1998, our go-to theatres became Cauvery and Vaibhav. Post-Covid, moviegoing is less frequent and confined to the Mantri or Orion Malls apart from the above two theatres. The movies I recall having seen at Cauvery include Kaho Na Pyar Hai (2000) and Tare Zameen Par (2007). I also recall watching Virumandi (2004) in a theatre on the Outer Ring Road and a rerun of Padayappa (1999) at the HMT Auditorium. Some of the movies we have watched at Mantri Mall are Queen (2013), Piku (2015), Pink and Dangal (2016), Secret Superstar and Newton (2017).

Conclusion

Am I sorry that Vilasini and I do not go to movie theatres that often these days? Are we unhappy that we do not watch many OTT movies or serials? Actually, no. We happily accept that our time for compulsive moviegoing is over! Frankly, neither of us can find the time. YouTube has enough meaningful content by way of talks, music, etc. to engage with. When we come across serials like The Crown (2016) and Panchayat (2020) or off-beat movies featuring talented actors like Rajkummar Rao, Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Pankaj Tripathi, Kriti Sanon and others, we enjoy them. For the rest, we are content to unexpectedly stumble upon reruns of good, old films while channel-surfing during sports or other programmes.

Do I feel that “Nostalgia ain’t what it used to be…”, that we oldies have somehow lucked out and that the younger generation of today will have less to be nostalgic about? Frankly, no again, if I look at Yuv, our fifteen-year-old grandson. He watches a lot of online movies during weekends but never misses seeing a new animation movie or thriller of his choice with his classmates. I am sure that even fifteen or twenty years from now, he will have pleasant memories of movies he watched.

To answer my own rhetorical question in the title, moviegoing may be slowly going or may even have gone altogether for some old-timers. But it is not a complete break. Movie watching is still alive and well. After all, why ‘go’ to the movies braving the traffic and other hassles, when movies can ‘come’ to you?

Dedication

With a lot of fondness tinged with sadness, I dedicate this blog to our dear friend Vasu who passed away three months ago. Here is the link to my blog about him. (https://kaykay46.wordpress.com/2023/02/27/rip-vasu/). He was as active a member of our Gumpu till his sudden death as he was an avid movie goer at college. We miss him. Had I been able to consult him, he would have filled many factual gaps in my recollection of those days, movies and theatres. I thank the other members who chipped in with their recollections. I take responsibility for all the factual errors and gaps.   

Disclaimer

“Remembrance of things past is not necessarily the remembrance of things as they were.” wrote Marcel Proust. Here, I may have recalled some of the theatres and movies wrongly. If any of you want to ‘correct’ me with your own remembrances, please do so with some proof other than your equally fallible memory! I will be happy to set the record straight and republish the blog.

S. Krishna Kumar

15^th May 2023,

Bengaluru

Blog #66     

The P is Silent

Abstract

The State of Karnataka will go to the polls on 10^th May and the results of the elections will be known latest by 13^th night. In India which is a federal republic, people elect their representatives to the State Assembly (MLAs) once in five years and the MLAs of the party that wins the majority of seats then elect their leader who is thereafter invited by the Governor to be the next Chief Minister (CM) and form the Council of Ministers. The CM is thus not directly elected by the voters. The Constitution of India that underpins our democracy does not provide for or regulate the political parties and their working. They are governed by their own constitutions. Conventions established and followed in the early decades of our republic used to dictate the election of the CM. These conventions respected inner party democracy and expected that the CM-to-be will be indirectly elected by the MLAs of the party. These conventions are increasingly given the go by in recent decades by all the political parties and a culture of the CM being ‘nominated’ rather than ‘elected’ has come into being. The ‘nomination’ is done by the high command, the central leadership or the family controlling the political party. The party then goes through a charade of the ‘nominee’ being unanimously ‘elected’ as the leader. Having followed election coverage in the newspapers cursorily in the last two months, I wonder if we in India are not converting ‘election’ system into a ‘nomination’ or ‘selection’ system by default. This blog is an account of how I have seen this change being reinforced in the forthcoming elections to the Karnataka Assembly.

Congress – The First Cry

Sounding the first cry of the bugle was Siddaramaiah. As reported in the Hindu, he seemed happy to admit – or was it announce? – that both D K Shivakumar and he were ‘aspirants’ for the CM’s ‘post’. He rationalised it by saying that in a democracy, anyone can aspire to the highest post and that the Congress high command will take the final decision.

This struck me as odd for a number of reasons. The Congress party is not in power in Karnataka. Hence the party has to first win a majority of seats in the assembly in the coming general elections and earn the mandate to form the next government. The race to win the CM’s post can come only after that. Even if Siddaramaiah believes that strong anti-incumbency is at work, how can he take electoral verdict in favour of his party for granted? Finally, dislodging BJP that is in power at the state and the centre would take the collective effort of party workers and leaders at various levels, and not merely the genuflections of the aspirants to the highest post. In fact, it can even be argued that only the selfless effort of party workers and leadership at the grassroot level can help the Congress regain power in Karnataka. As someone who has risen from the ranks to become CM once, Siddaramaiah must be well aware of this.

D K Shivakumar then got into the act. Newspapers reported that he had said that he is willing to work under Mallikarjuna Kharge were he to be the high command’s choice as the Congress CM. Apart from being more of ‘cart-before-the-horse’ stuff, this led to speculation that DKS was merely check-mating Siddaramaiah by invoking Kharge’s name. How could Kharge be even proposed for CM in a party that claims to believe in the ‘one-person-one-post’ principle? That was the follow-up question.

BJP’s Two-by-Five

If Siddaramaiah believed that he, DKS and a few others can aspire to the CM’s post even ahead of the elections, Basavaraj Bommai acted with unseemly haste as though he was already re-anointed as CM and that the elections were a mere formality. The alacrity with which publicity posters showing him and the PM were released by his government was both naïve and scandalous. Even the BJP higher ups could not perhaps stand it and new posters showing B S Yeddyurappa, J P Nadda, Basavaraj Bommai and Nalin Kumar Kateel replaced earlier ones. Slogans like Mathomme Bommai were dropped. We then had K S Eashwarappa of the BJP who had ‘voluntarily retired’ from electoral politics recently expressing his wish that C T Ravi, the general secretary of the BJP and a Vokkaliga, be made the next CM.  But Jagadish Shettar, a former Lingayat CM was denied a ticket. There were dark hints of a Brahmin leader who is popular with the central leadership emerging as the CM after the elections. Looking to all this, there is speculation that the BJP wants a Lingayat-supported but Lingayat-leader-mukht government in Karnataka. What is remarkable is the common position taken by leaders of both the main parties that after the this general elections, the (s)election of the CM will be decided not by the legislature party but by an outside authority by whatever name called.

Kingmaker wants to be King

In an interview to the Hindu, H D Deve Gowda asked why the JD(S) must only be king-maker and said that they want to emerge kings. “There will not be a fractured mandate and there is no point in speaking about alliance. My honest assessment is that we will come to power with a working majority.”, he said. We do not know if this was false bravado or astrology-backed optimism. Again, the similarity of this position with that of the Congress and BJP is remarkable. It is strange that a political party enters the electoral fray wanting to play spoilsport but somehow believes that it will emerge as the single largest party when the results are announced. This clearly shows how dysfunctional parliamentary democracy in India has become.

Prajaprabhutva and Rajaprabhutva

Prajaprabhutva is the Kannada word for democracy. However, seeing how leaders of parties across the political spectrum are busy nominating and proposing the next Raja aka CM, I feel that what we have in Karnataka – and most other states of the country – is Rajaprabhutva. Someone elects the MLAs, someone else decides who will be their leader and thus the CM. The Raja becomes more important than the Prajas and often dances to the tune of the puppeteers and becomes less and less accountable to the citizens who voted her/his party to power. This leads to disenchantment and results in frequent changes of the CM. It is the familiar dichotomy in India between ought-ness (things as they ought to be) and is-ness (things as they are) or between de jure and de facto.

Prognosis

Karnataka is one of the few states with the dubious distinction of having three CMs in the duration of single Assembly on three occasions. Thus in 1989-94, the state had three Congress CMs. In 2004-08, we saw three CMs, one each from the Congress, JD(S) and BJP. In 2008-13, the state had three BJP CMs. One reason for the lack of longevity in the tenure of the CMs is the fact that they are not democratically elected by MLAs of the respective legislature party. In 1990, the Congress high command overlooked K H Patil who commanded the majority of the legislature party in favour of S Bangarappa. In 2006, the Congress was double-crossed by the JD(S). After 2008, Karnataka had to see three CMs as the dislike of the central leadership of the BJP of Yeddyurappa was more than their like of any alternative. Even in the last Assembly from 2018-23, the BJP has seen two CMs.

Thus, as long as the Rajaprabhutva of ‘selecting a CM’ continues in preference to the Prajaprabhutva of ‘electing a leader’ of the political party that attains electoral majority, we can safely predict that the next Assembly may also see multiple CMs, with all that it implies for slowing down momentum in the governance and development spheres. And the continued disenchantment of the voters undermining electoral democracy itself. Not only the political parties but also the media, including the polling agencies, are guilty of fomenting these unwanted and undesirable changes.

Therefore, from now on, if I am asked what kind of a political system we have in Karnataka, I am going to say that we have Prajaprabhutva but that the P is silent!        

S. Krishna Kumar,

7^th May 2023,

Bengaluru

Blog # 65